Melody Molander

The Ohio State University

molander.3(at)osu(dot)edu

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Welcome!

I am a Ross Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University. I work with David Penneys and Micah Chrisman.

I received my PhD in Mathematics from UC Santa Barbara in 2025. My advisor was Stephen Bigelow. I received my Mathematics B.S. from UC Davis in 2014 and my Mathematics M.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 2017.

CV

Research:

Link to my papers: arXiv

My research lies at the intersection of quantum algebra, quantum topology, operator algebras, and mathematical physics.

Primarily, I use diagrammatic and combinatorial methods from knot theory and tensor categories to study algebraic structures arising in operator algebras and mathematical physics. I am particularly interested in subfactors and fusion categories, which provide complementary operator-algebraic and categorical frameworks for studying quantum symmetry.

I particularly like topics related to the following:

More information on each of my papers can be found on my Research page.

Current Activity and News: